PNE Vs Nottingham Forest 22/2/22

What a great game to watch, only one team deserved the 3 points, every player at least an 8/10.
Thought Potts was the best WB on the pitch, shame Bauer had to go off as Hughes was doing well.
Lindsay looked the player Stoke paid 2mil for, the midfield 3 were all up for it and bossed the middle of the park-hard to believe it was the same 3 from Saturday!!
Chedwin again battered thier cb’s, only thing missing was an Archer brace.

I thoroughly enjoyed tonight. We deserved all three points and, after a shaky first ten minutes, bossed the game. And in the last minutes JE FINALLY took on the full back down the outside and created danger.

Why oh why can we not be more consistent?

Didn’t like the way they won the toss and made us change ends …. how dare they !!

Nearly half past midnight and just got home..I've now experienced every weather phenomenon going to and from Deepdsale. Tonight it was a landslide.

Thoroughly enjoyed the game...pressing from the front was excellent. Only downside, sorry to say, was Earl...just not good enough at this level and could have cost us the game in the 94th minute when he let Spence go round him and put a good ball across the face of goal.

Hard to believe that this was basically same players as last Saturday.

Agree about Earl not being good enough but don’t blame him for that play in the 94th min. He’s been booked so couldn’t commit and not one of our players took responsibility to help him out, the gap between Earl and our next defender was too big and Spence took advantage.

In fairness to Earl just before that he did manage to slip his defender take it down to the byline and got a cracking cross over, still think with work there is a player in there but I would perhaps encourage him down the CB route, must agree Hughes has been Mr Consistent this season

Thoroughly enjoyed that game last night, played Forest at their own game and they didn’t have an answer, they all put in 100 % DJ looked absolute class at time and that flick over his own head in 2nd half was sublime and Potts, well he was immense. The energy levels for 90+ mins was superb, you would have thought we were the team who had had 10 days rest

Best thing for me last night was getting my PNE mojo back!

Id sort of given up on the rest of the season after the Reading and Pboro performances.

Doom and gloom lifted, up the football league we go!

Whilst it is all a matter of opinion I'd say that if Earl could not stop Spence legitimately then at that stage of the game he should have taken him outside the box and accepted the second yellow. With a minute to go everybody could then have got back to defend properly. As it was it was it is just as well Spence was too good for his forwards (he looks a real handful and Hughes had performed brilliantly in stopping him earlier in the game) ) and nobody was up to take advantage of an excellent ball across the 6 yards box.

From their Forum:-

Potts looks a good player We're being overrun everywhere.

Midfield isn’t working, chasing shadows. Needs to change this.

So frustrating to see the opposition want it more than us.

The Preston press is really intense and aggressive. Difficult to play against if they keep that up.

We are getting absolutely battered, we have to change something

They have completely nullified our threat with their pressing. Pushed our fullbacks back and pressured us all over the pitch

we’re making them look like prime Barca here We look like the dog and duck second string.

My gosh, Preston are playing like it's the World Cup final. Their intensity and challenging for every ball like their lives depend on it.

Preston are Fulham in disguise

I’d love to get Daniel Johnson in our midfield. He has been Dumitru-esque.

Sadly its the blue print for how to play Forest. Press high and hard. Sit our wing backs deep, isolate Johnson.

Embarrassing performance but not quite as embarrassing as Preston dominating us all game and their fans only getting behind their team

I thought Preston used a very clever game plan. Their wing-backs were clearly under instruction to stop Spence and Lowe going outside them at all costs, and as a result our midfielders had no outlet and a pressing player in their face every time they got the ball - which we know they don’t deal well with - so we never got anything going. Smart on their part and we’re lucky they fluffed their lines.

I was critical of Lowe after Saturday's shambolic performance. Last night was the first time since he arrived that I have seen it clearly shown that the opposition have been watched and a game plan devised to combat them (that worked). V fair comment from their forum.

Dawson, you had 12 hours to decide what to do if you were Earl. He had a split second and in the forefront of his mind must have been the booking he received minutes earlier for a foul on the same player.

Can you also not see the issue with the rest of the team leaving him 1 on 1 against a player who has recently been ripping full backs a new proverbial.